BRUSSELS, June 6 (Reuters) - A Meta plan to use

personal data to train its artificial intelligence (AI) models

without seeking consent came under fire from advocacy group NOYB

on Thursday, which called on privacy enforcers across Europe to

stop such use.

NOYB (none of your business) urged national privacy

watchdogs to act immediately, saying recent changes in Meta's

privacy policy, which come into force on June 26, would allow it

to use years of personal posts, private images or online

tracking data for the Facebook owner's AI technology.

The advocacy group said it has launched 11 complaints

against Meta and asked data protection authorities in Austria,

Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, the

Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Spain to launch an urgency

procedure because of the imminent changes.

Meta rejected NOYB's criticism and referred to a May 22 blog

in which it said it uses publicly available online and licensed

information to train AI as well as information that people have

shared publicly on its products and services.

However, a message sent to Facebook users said Meta may

still process information about people who do not use its

products and services nor have an account if they appear in an

image or are mentioned in posts or captions shared by a user.

"We are confident that our approach complies with privacy

laws, and our approach is consistent with how other tech

companies are developing and improving their AI experiences in

Europe (including Google and Open AI)," a spokesperson said.

NOYB has already filed several complaints against Meta and

other Big Tech companies over alleged breaches of the EU's

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which threatens fines

up to 4% of a company's total global turnover for violations.

Meta has previously cited a legitimate interest for using

users' data to train and develop its generative AI models and

other AI tools, which can be shared with third parties.

NOYB founder Max Schrems said in a statement that Europe's

top court had already ruled on this issue in 2021.

"The European Court of Justice (CJEU) has already made it

clear that Meta has no 'legitimate interest' to override users'

right to data protection when it comes to advertising," he said.

"Yet the company is trying to use the same arguments for the

training of undefined 'AI technology'. It seems that Meta is

once again blatantly ignoring the judgements of the CJEU,"

Schrems said, adding that opting out was extremely complicated.

"Shifting the responsibility to the user is completely

absurd. The law requires Meta to get opt-in consent, not to

provide a hidden and misleading opt-out form," Schrems said,

adding: "If Meta wants to use your data, they have to ask for

your permission. Instead, they made users beg to be excluded".